9.21.2004

Presidental Ticket

The missus and I went to see Michael Moore speak at the Tweeter Center in Camden last night and I came out of there with mixed feelings.

Believe it or not, I'm not a big fan of Michael Moore. Conservatives say he bends the truth to suit his position, as if Rush Limbaugh is the Keeper of the Truth. They say he is anti-American which, if you ever listen to Moore's message, is a crock. He is very Pro-American, almost too Pro-American at times. He just doesn't like their America. He dares to say that maybe we could learn some things from Canada (Canada!!!). That maybe CEOsmight not have your best interests in mind. That guns kill people. Un-American! Watching these mental midgets get all worked up is the best part of Michael Moore's crusade.

A big problem I have with Moore isn't even his fault. It's that his targets are too easy. It's too easy to make jokes about the Bush/Halliburton ticket when these guys are walking jokes. It's hard to get into deep conversation about such a shallow president. Moore often beats the neo-con dead horse so thoroughly that you almost forget these people are immoral and start feeling bad for Rummy and Condi. Almost.

Moore is right that someone must point out the lies that this evil administration tells to those who still may vote for Bush, or just as bad, Nader. The so-called liberal (ha!) media isn't doing it. So he's spending a lot of his time doing these college talks, giving free tickets to students (he wants the "slacker vote") and charging just five bucks to others. But he's not the right person for it.

Last night's lecture was a case of preaching to the converted. That's the biggest problem. Worse, Moore is not a very good preacher. Moore is very funny but he's all over the place, rarely looking at his notes and often screaming obscenity-laced anti-Bush slogans. We who have no problem proudly calling ourselves liberals eat this stuff up. But it doesn't attract those on the fence.

Moore's movies are only now starting to attract the general public, and his live appearances aren't professionally edited like those documentaries. This was evident when he showed two Swift Boat parody ads that he said were made that day. They were so professional done and their message was so dead-on ridiculous that they looked like the real thing. This contrasted strongly with his disorganized train-of-thought lecture.

The night ended up being a pep-rally for liberals to go out and change people's minds, which is great. But it would be better if the speaker could more effectively send the message to the masses himself.

All in all it was still a fun night. Pep-rallies usually are.

P.S. It looks like Moore has posted his often-diverted-fromspeech from last night on his website.

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